Fall from grace

Once Australia's richest man under 40, with a $1.13 billion fortune in 2011 built on a series of canny coal deals, Mr Tinkler has hit hard times due to plunging commodity prices that has halved his worth to an estimated $400 million.

Mr Tinkler was last month forced to sell his private jet and helicopter to pay creditors.

Cara Waters, editor of online business publication Smart Company, says it is difficult to say whether the sale of Patinack Farm will be enough to lift Mr Tinkler out of trouble.

"He's been quite cagey about the extent of his wealth and how much he has left because we know obviously he has significant holdings, but he also has a lot of debt and even when he was before the Supreme Court last month, it was very unclear how much assets he had and how much debt," she said.

"So this really shows more than anything he said to the court that he is struggling if he's having to sell this.

"Really, it's just been a string of bad news after bad news for really the past year, from being on the high of the BRW rich list and going round buying up racehorses, buying up sporting teams, it's now been quite a fast fall from grace."